Doctor Care Anywhere, one of the UK’s largest private providers of telehealth services has partnered with leading online medical letter provider, ZoomDoc, to provide same day medical letters and certificates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Two of the biggest names in remote care have teamed up to provide a better service for people needing a medical letter or certificate.

The first-of-its-kind partnership between Doctor Care Anywhere, the UK’s largest private provider of telehealth services, and ZoomDoc, the leading online medical letter provider, has been announced as millions of people prepare for their October half-term holiday abroad.

With a 21% year-on-year increase in people taking October half-term trips, it’s not only a busy period for airlines and travel agents, the increase in travel activity places additional burden on the NHS too.

According to ABTA’s latest ‘Holiday Habits’ report, ‘knowing I have the correct documents for travel’, is the aspect that gives people the most confidence to travel, with 91% of holidaymakers saying it’s essential or important.

For many travelers, ‘correct documentation’ includes a medical letter or certificate from their GP, including a pregnancy fit-to-fly certificate for expecting mums, chickenpox recovery, or travelling with medication among others.

These are all letters that overstretched GPs are regularly asked for, and due to the challenges accessing primary care services, people often have to wait weeks to receive.

About the challenges patients face in getting medical documentation via the NHS, Zoe Sullivan, Chief Customer Officer at Doctor Care Anywhere said: “As a result of the waiting times and difficulties people face in accessing primary care, many turn to virtual private providers like Doctor Care Anywhere to get an appointment remotely.

“Doctor Care Anywhere conducts over 60,000 virtual consultations a month, and is keen to expand its services to meet patient needs. Since partnering with ZoomDoc, our patients can get a guaranteed medical letter the same day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.”

The collaboration will not only help to reduce the pressure on its own clinicians by enabling them to direct patients to ZoomDoc’s online services for the right documentation, but will also help support the NHS by reducing the burden of medical letter provision all year round.

Explaining how ZoomDoc helps reduce the burden on private and NHS GP services, Dr Kenny Livingstone, Chief Medical Officer at ZoomDoc said: “Via our own GMC-registered GPs, ZoomDoc provides 28 different types of medical documentation including university and college sickness notes, fit to fly letters and visa certificates, which patients typically require at short notice.

“Getting a medical letter from your doctor can be stressful and take days. ZoomDoc is the fastest and most convenient way to get a medical letter without the hassle of waiting for a GP appointment. Once a patient has provided the evidence and information needed to assess them online, our GP reviews and verifies it remotely, before sending the required documentation electronically.

“A ZoomDoc GP can safely review 15 patients per hour and provide the relevant documents, whereas an NHS or private GP would typically do four or five consultations. By partnering with Doctor Care Anywhere to scale its ability to help more patients with medical certificates, we want to reduce the pressure on their clinicians while providing a simpler, and quicker experience for patients.”

From today, Doctor Care Anywhere patients can access the online medical letter service provided by ZoomDoc directly from the Doctor Care Anywhere website, providing a seamless integrated service for patients.

About Doctor Care Anywhere

Doctor Care Anywhere Group PLC is one of the UK’s largest private providers of telehealth services.  The Company works with insurers, healthcare providers and corporate customers to provide patients with a range of digitally-enabled telehealth services on its proprietary platform. DCA is committed to delivering the best possible patient experience and clinical care through digitally enabled, joined up, evidence-based pathways.

About ZoomDoc

ZoomDoc is the fastest and most convenient way to get a medical letter.

As the leading online medical letter company, ZoomDoc provides 28 different types of documentation that patients often can’t wait to get from their GP, or that NHS GPs don’t typically provide.

ZoomDoc provides same-day medical letters to people that need them for work, study, travel, insurance, housing, or disability assessment. Once a patient has provided the evidence and

information needed to assess them, the ZoomDoc GP reviews and verifies it remotely, before sending the required documentation electronically. In most cases ZoomDoc provides medical letters at a lower cost than what NHS GP practices are advised to charge.

General practice is under relentless pressure, with more patients than it can cope with. Every appointment taken by someone needing a document relating to a condition which can be just as safely assessed and verified online, takes away an appointment from someone who needs more urgent care. Since launching its medical letters service in January 2022, ZoomDoc has saved NHS GPs over 8,500 hours.

Governed by a strict medical and ethical code of practice, ZoomDoc has the highest standards of any online medical letter provider.

ZoomDoc is founded and led by Dr Kenny Livingstone (GMC ref: 6145454) a seasoned GP of 17 years’, and supported by a carefully selected team of experienced UK doctors who also work in the NHS. Every patient is thoroughly assessed virtually, by one of the GP team, and our patients regularly tell us the assessment they receive is more personal and thorough than when they contact their regular GP, because of the time constraints NHS GPs are under.